Our Story

I’ve always found perfume irresistible and I still remember the day I first fell in love with perfume as a young girl. I was in my grandmother’s bedroom, watching her perform her familiar morning routine – the one that she always rounded off with a dab of perfume to her wrists and neck, and a smile. That morning, she saw me looking and asked if I’d like to try them. Bottle after tantalising bottle was unstoppered for me to try—Guerlain, Chanel, Dior—and I was quickly hooked. But confused!

Years later, I wondered how my own daughter would navigate her way through the perfume world. Let’s face it, shop assistants in beauty halls aren’t much interested in teenagers hoping for a free spritz. And perfume names are designed to entice and excite rather than to describe the scent inside.

So I took my daughter to a perfumier’s salon. As we held tester after tester to our noses, we became dizzy with fragrance and eventually unable to tell one from another. And I realised we needed to get back to basics – to try some scents out at home, to find out what we really like. Which is how Cally King was born.